NRA Writes Pro-Gun Fairy Tales

What If Little Red Riding Hood Was Packing Heat? The NRA Knows

Update: This story has been updated to include more recent statistics provided by Everytown for Gun Safety.Original story follows.

Once upon a time, in a land far away, a young girl faced down the Big Bad Wolf and...opened fire, apparently.

The NRA Family website has started posting its own versions of classic fairy tales — this time, the heroes are armed and dangerous. The first installment, titled “Little Red Riding Hood (Has a Gun)” rewrites the folk tale into the story of how Red and her grandma scare away the bad guy with the help of a pair of trusty firearms.

The story is seemingly only the first in a planned series. “Have you ever wondered what those same fairy tales might sound like if the hapless Red Riding Hoods, Hansels, and Gretels had been taught about gun safety and how to use firearms?” the introductory note asks.

The story series is another example of the myth of the “good guy with a gun,” which pro-gun advocates promote as a strategy to prevent gun violence. Many opponents of stronger gun laws believe that being armed is the best deterrent to crime and violence, rather than more extensive gun control measures.

Frighteningly, in this instance it seems that the intended audience is young children, a group which is in fact endangered by gun violence. According to data provided by gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, 265 children were injured or killed in an unintentional shootingin 2015, and there have already been 11 shootings this year. In most instances, the death was due to a child getting access to an unsecured gun.

So while Red frightens away the Big Bad Wolf with her rifle in the NRA version, in real life, Red herself would have been far more at risk than the wolf.